Jews come in many varieties, Sephardim, Ashkenazim, religious, secular; each group is further subdivided, but we all have one thing in common… We are all Jews! In spite of our strong disagreements, whether political or religious, in spite of differences in minhagim or nussach of prayer, we are all Jews! To the world at large, we are all one. You doubt it? Look at Jewish history throughout. Especially look at Hitler, yimach shmo vezichro, and his murderous Nazi henchmen. They didn’t care if we wore a shtraimel, a hat, a yarmulkeh or sported no head covering at all. Hitler didn’t care where, or even if, we prayed. In the interest of a mythological Aryan purity, the Nazis went went back six generations to see if there was a drop of Jewish blood so they could add more individuals to the roster of those they wanted to exterminate. Why? Because to them, whether one was an Eastern European Ashkenazi or a Greek Sephardi from Salonika, whether a world famous scientist, or a well known doctor, a renowned author or academic, or just a lowly – previously unheard of – shoemaker, we were all – without exception – verdammte Juden.

This week we commemorate the 70th anniversary of Anna Frank‘s death in a concentration camp, you would have thought that after the horrors of WWII, the world would have learned its lesson. Well… it obviously learned nothing or forgot it too soon! Look around you, religious and ethnic hatred are rampant and at heightened levels. Antisemitism in Europe is once again approaching the infamous levels of the late 30s. The more things change, the more they stay the same…

Starting on Wednesday evening through Thursday, we celebrate Purim. In the Hebrew year 3404, Haman – King Achashverosh‘ Prime Minister – decreed the Final Solution that was to annihilate every Jew in all 127 lands ruled by the Persian Empire. On the following year 3405 (356 BCE), on the 13th of Adar the Jews were victorious against their enemy. Today 2370 years later, Israel once again faces the same existential threat from Haman‘s spiritual heirs, now it is the Persian satrap, the Supreme Leader of Iran and his murderous fanatics. Just as we did then, we will emerge victorious again! We must realize that regardless of differences in degrees of religious observance or lack thereof, regardless of the hue of our skin, regardless of religious customs, regardless of social status, regardless of the cultural influences that mold the individual, we are all Jews; far too many people around the world still consider us verdammteJuden.WE GOTTA LIVE TOGETHER , in peace and harmony for only then will we be invincible!!!

I am the son of Holocaust survivors. Prior to WWII, my parents were a successful young middle class couple with a seemingly bright future ahead in Lodz (Poland). My father was a department manager at the Ettingon Brothers textile dye manufacturing plant in town and my mother was a nurse at the Jewish hospital. In 1939, as the Nazi troops marched into town, their world was plunged into darkness and horror. The Germans tore my then 3 year old brother Yitzchok ben Yaakov (alav haShalom), from my mother’s arms and I never got to know him.

By courtesy of the same murderers – and their collaborators – I never was held by any of my grandparents, nor any of my uncles, nor any of my aunts, for neither was I to see them alive. The blood of innocent Jews has not fully dried up on European soil, yet – for the last seven decades since the war ended – there are those those who vehemently deny the stark historical truth, while survivors are still around, while Germany’s own archives record the persecution, enslavement and murders…

Yesterday, the 27th of April, was the sad anniversary of the massacre of those whose only crime was to have been born Jewish in a Europe that thirsted for a hated scapegoat, in a Europe where – in spite of a number of courageous gentiles who endangered themselves and their families to hide and save Jews – prejudice, ignorance and greed melded into one simple cause: Annihilate the Jew!

At around noontime, this past Sunday, the annual Holocaust Observance Day was held in front of the Iranian Mission to the UN on 3rd Avenue in Manhattan’s East Side.

Jeffrey S. Weisenfeld, opened the proceedings, as he introduced the various speakers…

Jeffrey S. Weisenfeld

Speakers included, members of a Russian Jewish organization of survivors, elected politicians, community leaders, rabbis and more. While almost everyone spoke eloquently and from the heart, two of them really stood out:

Rabbi Avi Weiss

Rabbi Weiss (with whose religious hashkafot I hardly agree), spoke eloquently and forcefully about the existential danger to Israel (and Jews in general!) that Iran’s current regime represents. He reminded us that in 1994, Hezbollah (Iran’s Lebanese puppet) was directly responsible for blowing up the Buenos Aires Jewish Center (AMIA), killing 87 and wounding 100, two years after Islamic Jihad claimed credit for bombing the Israeli Embassy (in the same city) killing 29 and wounding 250.

For the record, in October 2006 Argentinian prosecutors Alberto Nisman and Marcelo Martínez Burgos formally accused top officials within the government of Iran with orchestrating the bombing and Hezbollah for carrying it out. Their indictment stated that the decision to approve the bombing was ultimately made by Iranian Supreme LeaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei, but other senior government members were also part of the discussion, including then-PresidentAli Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, Intelligence MinisterAli Fallahijan and National Security Council SecretaryHassan Rouhani (Iran’s current charming, smooth-talking-terrorist President!).

Meanwhile, diagonally across the street, Iran’s supporters had their own counter rally… A small group comprised of individuals dressed like ultra-Orthodox learned Rabbis (some were even holding talmud tractates, which they – at times – would glance into), a group – who – in reality, is nothing more than the erev rav – a fifth column; a group made up of individuals who long ago forfeited their Jewish souls as they sold themselves to that putrid Iranian little maggot – Mahmoud Ahmedinajad – in exchange for funding for their organization (Neturei Karta). There are many videos, many photos online of these guys hugging, kissing, and cavorting with the Iranian murderer of his own people (did we forget already?!?). Yes, Ahmedinajad, the very one who – as a university student – was part of the mob that stormed the American Embassy in Teheran and held American diplomats captive while humiliating them daily for 444 days (i.e. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-r04SQ97_Q). Notice, in the video, who sits directly to the right of Ahmedinajad and see the photo below…

Rabbi Beck, leader of Neturei Karta USA, and part of his group as one of them proudly waves the Iranian flag…

As I crossed the street to photograph their infamy, one of them screamed out at me: “The Zionists killed 6 million Germans and 6 million Jews.” I’ll let you, gentle reader, draw your own conclusions about such a statement and the one who uttered it…

Rabbi Weiss compared the Neturei Karta to the Jewish kappos (Jews who – in order to save their own lives, in the concentration camps – collaborated with the Nazis, sometimes ruthlessly), for their support of Iran, their support of Hamas and Yasser Arafat (while he was alive) and the prayers on behalf of the arch terrorist as he lay dying of AIDS in a sanatorium in France. He concluded his speech by leading the audience in stirring renditions of Shlomo Carlebach‘s (Z”L) Am Yisroel Chai and Od Avinu Chai.

He was followed by an even more electrifying speaker…

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Rabbi Boteach just came back from a week in Rwanda, where he was a guest of PresidentPaul Kagame during the commemorations of the bloody massacre that took place there during the infamous Rwandan civil war. He too spoke of the existential danger to Israel, the Jews and the US, if the Ayatollahs are allowed to build a nuclear arsenal. He disagreed however with Rabbi Weiss‘ equating the kappos with Neturei Karta. However ruthless the kappos‘ behaviour may have been, they had no choice, Rabbi Boteach said, for they feared for their lives! The Neturei Karta who claim to be devout Jews, who claim strict adherence to the Torah and Hakodosh Boruch Hu‘s everlasting law, do have a choice yet they openly and proudly collaborate with our enemies for the sake of a handout…

Almost 2500 years ago the Israelites, who’d been exiled to Persia, saw themselves threatened with mass murder through the instigation of Artaxerxes II’s (Ahasuerus) vizier, Haman. The odds were against them, bribes couldn’t accomplish much. Running away to safer places was not a viable option, especially since the Persian Empire extended through 127 lands! There seemed to be little that could be done… One man, one of the king’s advisors, a Jew, not only did not take this laying down but he seemingly exacerbated matters by refusing to bow down before the vizier. Rather than hide as soon as he saw Haman, he made it a point to stay where he was and while everybody bowed and prostrated themselves he stood defiantly upright. At first, this behavior seems incomprehensible. Every one was supposed to bow down or risk getting killed, yet this man seemed oblivious of the punishment. He continually and openly defied and enraged the vizier. Common sense would have dictated bowing down. What was the point of attracting undo attention to oneself? And why would Mordechai, the Jew, be so brazen about it?

Haman was a descendant of King Agag, who was defeated by Shaul Hamelech. King Agag was a descendant of Amalek, a desert chieftain in the Sinai Peninsula who attacked the Jews fresh out of Egypt and was very badly defeated. The enmity between the two people was strong; Haman, as a descendant of Agag, craved vengeance from the nation he hated most. Now, the head of that nation, Mordechai seemed to egg him on, to go out of his way to provoke him with his insulting attitude. Why did this Jew, Mordecai, refuse to bow and prostrate himself? Haman was considered a deity, he wore a necklace with his likeness in the form of an idol. Had Mordechai bowed to Haman, he would be bowing to a living idol. No Jew could do that! By being so brazen, he hoped that Haman would take out his wrath on him and him alone. But Haman was too smart for that. He knew Mordechai had saved Ahasuerus’ life by revealing a plot he’d overheard when two courtiers were planning to assassinate the king. For Haman to go and demand Mordechai’s head from the king was not likely to succeed. Instead, he told the king that one nation stands apart and refuses to blend in therefore it should be destroyed, including every man woman or child. By destroying all Jews he certainly would kill Mordechai! Esther, the queen, foiled the whole scheme when she invited the king and his vain vizier to dinner. At dinner she revealed to Ahasuerus, the plot against her people. Soon Haman and his 10 sons were hanged instead. That in short is the story of Purim as related in Megillas Esther… What is it’s relevance to our world of today? What if anything can it teach us? Patience, gentle reader, you will soon see…

In the days of the British Mandate in Palestine, the Jews – in the interest of peace with their Arab neighbors – were asked to give up any and all claims to the area of the Kotel Hama’aravi – the Western Wall, which is a remnant of the old Temple and thus the holiest existing site in the Jewish religion. In exchange for relinquishing all claims against it, the Arabs would permit the Jews to pray at the Wall without resorting to violence. Considering the number of Jews that had been killed or hurt on their way to prayers at the Wall, the Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Committee were ready to sign such a deal. They could not however do so, their signatures would lack legitimacy unless Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook – the Chief Rabbi – could be convinced of the merits of the idea and would publicly endorse it.

Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook

Various groups and organizations went to see the Chief Rabbi and carefully explained the situation, stressing the fact that by simply relinquishing Jewish rights the bloodshed of Jews would stop. The Rabbi however listened painfully but did not answer. His beadle, sensing the Chief Rabbi’s pain, went into the next room where the Rabbi’s oldest son was engaged in studies with others. He explained the situation and the son then entered his father’s room and explained to the important members of the delegation that his father could never agree. They eventually left disappointed… they had presented their case to the Chief Rabbi, they had explained to him that lives could be saved, but he did not badge, as if he did not fully grasp reality!

Another delegation of notables came to see Rabbi Kook, these were even more important people, nobody ever denied them their request. For while couched as requests, their words were meant as orders. They too accomplished nothing, especially after Chief Rabbi Kook told them. “Mordechai never bowed, nor would he prostrate himself! (Book of Esther 3:2)” Defeated in spite of their entreaties, in spite of their threats, the notables left empty handed. Rabbi Kook knew full well that compromising at this time would mean that at a later time the Jews would be told that they should stop praying at the Western Wall altogether, after all, their Chief Rabbi and all the Jewish notables had given up any claim and therefore it was no longer theirs. They – the Jews – would now be encroaching on the Muslims by insisting on praying at the Western Wall, to which they had given up all claims!

Fast forward a few years to WWII, this story is about the Grand Rabbi of Skulen, Elazar Zushe PortugalZaTZa”L. Nothing stood in the way of the Rebbe when it came to save Jews. During the war he was in the city of Chernowitz, then under Soviet control, so as to be able to assist those who had tried to smuggle themselves to Romania. Any Jew that was caught was immediately found guilty and as punishment was either sent to Siberia for life or he got a bullet in his head… The Rebbe, no matter the odds, always pleaded for those that had been caught and usually succeeded in getting them free.

The colonel in charge of the border patrols, also lived in Chernowitz, he was a ruthless man, but there was something about the Rabbi’s manner and his words that always managed to win him over, but even he had had enough of this Jew! He finally told the Rabbi, ” This will be the last time you will bother me. If you come again on behalf of your Jews I will kill you!”

Shortly thereafter the Rebbe was notified that a family of nine had been caught in the process of smuggling out. The Rebbe felt it was his duty to save them. Big bribes did not work, the Russians were absolutely determined to make an example of these people and thereby stop or at least slow down the escapes. The Rabbi felt he could still go to the Colonel and plead. His family and acquaintances begged him not to go, “why risk your life?” they argued. His answer was that while it was not a given that he would be killed as the colonel threatened, the lot of the unfortunate family was sealed unless he could do something about it!

Rabbi Portugal approached the colonel’s home with trepidation, climbed the steps and knocked on the door. The colonel opened and was immediately overcome with anger. He grabbed the Rebbe and threw him down the stairs. Badly hurt, and with extreme difficulty he managed to get up. With whatever strength he had left he barely climbed up the stairs again and knocked on the door.

The colonel opened the door and could not believe what he saw. There stood the Grand Rabbi of Skulen, dirty, bloodied, clothes torn, in obvious pain but… with a look of defiance in his eyes. “I must speak to you colonel!” the Rebbe said, tears streaming down his face. The colonel listened, the Rebbe begged, cried, as he told of the family’s plight. The colonel’s hardened heart was softened by the Rebbe’s selflessness and heartfelt devotion. He was impressed and the family was freed! The Grand Rabbi of Skulen, regardless of personal danger did not accept the family’s fate. He never wavered in his resolve to save them at all costs even at great personal risk. “Mordechai never bowed, nor would he prostrate himself! (Book of Esther 3:2)”

A 1930 Purim play, based on the Book of Esther

Still wondering what these stories of dead old Jews have to do with the 21st century world we live in now? Let me explain, gentle reader, 2500 years ago some Jews stood up to the Persian vizier. In Iran, would be new satrap, the putrid little maggot Ahmedinejad, is threatening the free world with impunity. Today, in Europe, in America, we are threatened by IslamoFascists who demand every right for themselves in exchange for nothing! Leaders in the UK, in the US, throughout Europe and Latin America are giving in without a fight, Frankly, these leaders have nothing to fight for, no spirituality, no lasting values worth defending. In the UK Imams preach hatred for the West, while comfortably living off the British taxpayer’s money. Their freedom of speech and incitement to violence is protected, While Geert Wilders, who exposes their kind without inciting or preaching violence is denied entry to the UK and his freedom of speech is curtailed. Western politicians have long given up their values in exchange for power, money, lust. None of those lasts long, thus they have no reason to fight for. We the people are of no import to these so called “leaders,” all they want is to perpetuate themselves in power! They know full well that as long as they are useful to IslamoFascism, as long as they bow and prostrate themselves they will be reelected by that malevolent minority who would tear away the rights from the rest of us. There are still some people in the West who cling to their spiritual values, there are still people in the west who pride themselves of their lifestyle and Western heritage… UMordechai lo yichra velo ishtachaveh – Mordechai never bowed, nor would he prostrate himself. Will we?!?!?

Starting this coming Saturday night and Sunday until nightfall, Jews around the world will celebrate the festival of Purim. What is Purim and what is its significance today other than the commemoration of a long, long past event? As in those days again the foe is Persia, Iran as it’s currently called. The King’s Vizier wanted to annihilate all the Jews on the day of Purim, instead he was hung and his henchmen killed… The descendant of pigs and apes, that putrid little maggot Mahmoud Ahmedinajad also obsesses about wiping Israel off the map, like Haman of yore he too is a Persian. Like Haman of yore, he is too blinded by his arrogance and hatred to do what is best for his country (whose economy is going down hill, fast), rather than follow his destructive whims…

But, gentle reader, he is unfortunately not alone as an evil creature these days. The list of those who want to build their careers by destroying Israel and eventually vanquish the West is unfortunately, much larger than just this Iranian wannabe world Satrap. You might recall Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah who wants to destroy the fragile democracy in Lebanon and turn it from a secular country into yet another repressive Muslim theocracy. Among the members of this infamous club you will find murderers such as Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Haniye who seem to totally ignore their constituents’ welfare in favor of their personal hatred for the Jews. And then, of course… the Dean of them all, Osama bin Laden (who may still be here on this earth or perhaps already “there” wondering why he didn’t get his 72 virgins and his beautiful valley, filled with fragrant flowers) and his next in line Ayman al-Zawahri, who actually runs the day by day operations of Al-Quaida… and the list goes on and on…

Haman, the vicious Vizier, was ultimately hung and so were his ten sons. They were hung on the very same tall gallows Haman had prepared for his hated foe, the Jew Mordechay. Then it took only one woman, to bring down the mighty Vizier and his minions, today one very brave person could still do a very good terminal job within each organization or country… Do miracles still happen in our day and age, are they as overtly open as they were then? Would it not be nice if they all did the World a favor and these scurges of mankind were eliminated one by one whether on Purim day (Sunday) or Shushan Purim (Monday)… or any other day?

In the days of King Xerxes or Artaxerxes, we are told: Layehudim hayta orah vesimcha, sason viykar – For the Jews there was light and joy, gladness and honor (Book of Esther 8:16). Would today’s world at large (not just dem Jooz!) not rejoice if these murderous terrorists were all given a final taste of their own medicine? Oh, I can just see the joyous headlines, but then I imagine there would be quite a few American bashers who’d bemoan the deaths (whether violent or otherwise) of these creeps. Why would anyone cry at the demise of such poor specimens of mankind, at the destruction of such malodorous pieces of devil’s dung? Why, folks, because it is fashionable to be anti-American, to be anti-West! These marked men are the heroes of the far left! What a tupsy-turvy world we live in where right is wrong, where truth is a lie. And yet, all this could be straightened out if there would be another Purim miracle… even if just one on this long list of vermin would loose his life in the exact way he wishes it on us… the free world might yet feel light and joy, gladness andhonor… One can dream, can’t one? Sometimes dreams become reality, don’t they? Oyyy, what a banquet we will have!

There is so much in the above that hasn’t changed three years later… will the West ever wake up or has it given up?!?!?